The spring of 2013 was the eleventh season for Bowdoin head coach Liz Grote. In the team's 2011 season Grote guided the Polar Bears to unprecedented heights, including the most wins in school history (18), the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA "Final Four" and runner-up finish in the Division III Tournament.
In the process, Grote surpassed long-time head coach Sally LaPointe as the winningest in program history. Since coming to Brunswick, Grote has won over 67% of her games (129-62) and has paced the Polar Bears to three NCAA Regional Final appearances. Coach Grote was honored as the IWLCA's New England Coach of the Year in 2005.
A native of Simsbury, Conn., Grote is a 1994 graduate of the University of Vermont and came to Bowdoin with an extensive background in college lacrosse. In addition to accumulating a school-best 32-18 record in three years at Wooster, Grote held assistant coaching jobs at Monmouth University (1995), Princeton University (1996) and the University of New Hampshire (1997-99).
In 2002, Grote led Wooster to a school- record 12 victories (12-6 overall), surpassing the 29-year program's previous top mark of 10 wins in a season. Even more noteworthy, she helped direct the Scots to their first conference title and first NCAA appearance, where they lost to Cabrini, 12-11, in the first round. Grote has been named the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III West Region Coach of the Year twice (2000, 2002) and was tabbed as North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in both 2001 and 2002.
Grote is at a helm of a program that plays in perhaps the most competitive lacrosse conference in the nation, the NESCAC.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
CHANGES IN THIS SUNDAY'S 4/27 GAME SCHEDULE.....
The HIGH SCHOOL games planned for Sunday have been cancelled by Bangor.
The MIDDLE SCHOOL games will go ahead as planned BUT will be held at SVMS field instead of PCC at 1:00 and 2:30.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENTS NEEDED
1. To Cook Hot Dogs Sunday 4/27 12:30-4pm @ Palmyra Park Games vs Eastern Maine 2. Team Parents-help coordinate carpools to away games, wash and care take uniforms etc. Please contact Gretchen president@midmainelacrosse.com ps. We have a High School parent. We need middle school as well.
4/24 TONIGHT
Girls PCC 5:30-7
BMS Palmyra Park 5:30-7
BHS SVMS 5:30-7
ps. if it pours rain-BMS will join Girls at PCC. This will be determined @ 5:30pm
Parents-
please be sure when dropping kids off
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
I am sorry for the ongoing confusion regarding practice locations. I will continue to try to get the information to you ahead of time. It is not a small job these days. I have made some mistakes.
Thursday April 24th High School 5:30-7pm INSIDE at SVMS Middle School Boys 5:30-7 Outside at PCC Big Field Middle School Girls 5:30-7 @ PCC gym. (Not joint with Bangor)
If is pours---only if it pours---Middle School Boys will join Middle School girls At PCC gym.This is not optimal but may be necessary. Parents please double check as you drop kids off.
Current Forecast Mostly cloudy and windy with rain showers in the morning. High 48F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Friday April 25th High School Boys 5:30-7pm Outside at PCC Big Field
Field lining, Mandatory Parent Meeting and Games against Bangor are Sunday. There is some challenge here as we can not longer use the back field at SVMS. It is too wet. Please stay tuned for further information.
Leave SVMS at 11:00am
Arrive 12:30
Hike until app 2pm
Picnic Lunch
Arrive AntiGravity Center 2:30/3:00
Use Gym 3-4
Trampoline ans Climbing Wall 3-5
Return Home
If you have roller blades bring them. If you don't please let me know.
Please bring your
lacrosse sticks
lacrosse ball with name on it
bag lunch, extra drinks
snacks,
boots for hike
roller blades.
Participants:
Joshua W
Braden M
Abby M
Duncan M
John W
Rachel W
Hayden B
Brayden R
Zac M
?Jordan M
Breac B
?Maille B
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Team Parent
Both the High School and the Middle School Teams need a team parent. This parent helps to facilitate car pooling to games. The parent does not need to arrange it all-just help a kid occasionally that might need a ride find a ride. The team parent might propose an after game meal stop. The team parent will collect and wash the uniforms. We do not have a budget to hand uniforms over to the kids. We will hand them out and collect them pre and post games. If the team parent cannot attend the game he or she can recruit a substitute parent and inform the team and the coaches. The team parent might email folks if there is a rain cancellation. (We do not call everyone.) It is not a large job but it is a VERY important job.
My plate is full. So are the plates of other board members. We need some new volunteers for these positions. Recreational sports require a different level of involvement from parents than school sports. They also can reward players in valuable ways. Please step up and offer to assume the role of High School Team Parent or Middle School Team Parent. In the past, I have been able to attend most events. BUT we have grown so very much-a good problem to have-I will miss many events tending to other events.Please volunteer. Thank you, Gretchen
We are getting close. We have 5 high school teams, 4 middle school teams and 3 middle school girls teams joining together for a day of contests. Saturday May 3rd.
We will play 30 minutes running time games with no 1/2 time. There are ten minute breaks between games. High schools play 4 games, middle school boys play 3 games and girls will play 2 games with a clinic option. Each game has two referees.
There will be hamburgers ($2), hot dogs, walking taco's, nacho's, (?) meatball subs, chips, water, Gatorade and soda for sale all day. There will be a breakfast bake sale and coffee available. Parents we need help, Lots of help and helpers. Please consider bringing a cooler (labelled with your name and hopefully full of ice.) Please bake for our "Breakfast Bake Sale." Please sign up and work long hours @ http://www.midmainelacrosse.com/html/master_calendar.html. Thank you. VERY MUCH.
We would like all MidMaine Lacrosse athletes to arrive by 7:30 to help. At 8:30 we will ask all teams to quickly line up, without helmets, on a letter on the field spelling lacrosse. We will take a photo. We will have a few opening remarks and Mr. Bruce Brown will play the National Anthem at 8:40.
We will have a group of photographers taking pictures all day. We will sell CD's with one photo, CD's with a game of photo's or CD's with all your teams games at a reasonable price. There will be a booth set up where you can look at the photo's prior to purchase. There may be a few additional shopping opportunities.
We will only cancel if there is lightening. We will play in the rain. Please bring canopy's you can share. We have an indoor space if it is wet and cold. There are not many bleachers. We will play on wet fields if they have not dried completely by 5/3.
This is a new venture for MidMaine Lacrosse and myself. It is intended as a friendly round robin, season starter among new developing teams and lacrosse programs. If we err please help us out. Don't express too much frustration. Help us correct problems and we will all grow together. We will try not to change the schedule from this point forward.
Although we will try not to change anything ALL is subject to change.
MAINEiax has a number of great programs for you and your team's! I hope you will take this opportunity to share them with your coaches, players, and their families. If you have any questions about our teams and camps or if you would like more drills or to simply talk "lax" please feel free to contact me at any time.
Summer Travel Teams
Tryouts for the MAINEiax boy's summer travel teams are coming fast!
Boys High School: Sunday April 13, 5:30-8:30 @ the Portland Sports Complex.
Boys Middle School: Sunday April 27, 4:00-7:00 @ the Portland Sports Complex.
All of our boy's teams will play 3 tournaments in July, with everyone finishing the summer together in Stowe, VT! Our teams provide a great opportunity for players grades 4-12 to compete against amazing competition and to learn from an outstanding coaching staff!
Tryout registration, tournament schedule, and more information can be found HERE
_________________________
Summer Camps
MAINEiax is offering TWO summer camp options for your players this year!
MAINE EVENT Camps: our full feature, marquee summer camps that feature college coaches and professional players. Each camp (boys/girls) focuses on advanced drills, fun games, and a complete curriculum to improve the skills of players just beginning and those born with a stick in their hands! The Maine Event camp is included in the price of our Middle School and Freshman travel team fee's!
Summer Day Camps: Locations: Falmouth, Freeport, Wells, Gorham, Westbrook, Portland, Kennebunk, and more!* Back for our third year in a row, MAINEiax has partnered with local town rec. departments to bring you fun and affordable lacrosse camps! We realize that everyone can't play on a travel team, attend a large "national" camp, or even make it to Portland for a weeknight league so we are bringing lacrosse to you!
*Do you think your town needs a lacrosse camp? Please contact me to see if we can help!
Camp dates, locations, and more information can be found HERE
Pam Edwards has been fortunate to find girls’ lacrosse players who enjoy playing goalie. The head coach of the Hopewell Valley High School girls’ lacrosse team in Hopewell, N.J., realizes the position isn’t always fun.
There’s the helmet, the oversized lacrosse stick, balls whizzing at you at an unbelievable speed and from all types of angles.
“I would say playing goalie is the toughest position,” Edwards says. “I think the goalie has to be a real, true team player, because not everybody wants to play goalie. It is a tough position.
“In the middle schools, (goalie) is one of the harder spots to fill, because not everyone has a concept of what it is to be a lacrosse goalie. You have all of that equipment on. The ball is shot pretty fast. It’s hard as a younger kid trying to learn how to clear the ball (with the oversized head of the lacrosse stick). The toughest part about playing goalie is having a headshot taken at you and having that ball bounce off your helmet. The kids today can shoot the ball pretty fast.”
So in finding the right player for the all-important position, Edwards looks for certain qualities.
Edwards believes the goalie is the most athletic player on the field. So she begins by looking for the lacrosse player who displays the best agility, hand-eye coordination, reaction and footwork.
The championship-winning coach works footwork drills with goalies as well as reaction and clearing lacrosse drills — both with equipment on and off. As an example of reaction drills, the coach uses different color tennis balls and throws it at the player. The player must deflect a certain color while ignoring the others.
In addition, lacrosse drills can focusing on defending specific shooting styles and angles — high shots, snap shots and shots coming around the crease — which aim to improve the goalie.
Girls’ lacrosse is different from boys’ lacrosse in the sense that if a defensive foul is committed in the offensive zone, the offense gets an eight-meter free position shot on the goalie (with no other defender within four meters of the shooter). In boys’ lacrosse, it is similar to ice hockey, where the defense plays a man down with a certain amount of time (depending on the severity of the penalty).
Of all the sports which require a goalie, girls’ lacrosse gives the offensive player a greater advantage. So a goalie is going to give up some goals — in fact, a lot. A player must handle this mentally.
“You definitely have to be mentally tough,” Edwards said. “They need to know they are going to get scored upon. A lacrosse goalie is going to get scored upon more so probably than in a lot of other sports because of the nature of the game.”
Edwards feels the best way to approach it is to continually work with the goalie on lacrosse drills to better herself and attack weaknesses.
“What you want to do is set goals, like increasing the amount of saves each time out,” she says. “If you get scored upon, OK, try to shut down that shot the next time down. But I also want them to know it was the team that was scored upon. We are a team, and everyone has a job to do.”
Edwards also puts onus on the offense by stressing the importance of capitalizing at the offensive end, because at the other end, the opposing team will have a good chance of scoring, too.
Also, girls’ lacrosse defenders should be drilled in the importance of coming up with groundballs as protection for their goalie.
1. from Gretchen.... I have not heard from our two possible stick donating sponsors. If you can, please purchase a stick and goggles. If buying a stick and goggles doesn't fit into this weeks budget please give Gretchen Baker a call 341-1545 or 938-2681 The other 1/2 of your team, girls from Eastern Maine Youth Lacrosse, will travel to PCC Thursday, May 10th to practice 5:30 to 7:00pm. Coach Dickerson will work with Coach Wilson. Maille Baker's mom will serve ice cream sundae's at the close of practice. You do not need gloves. Some girls may wear gloves. Girls gloves are not like boys gloves. I have included an articular about lacrosse sticks. I have also included a link to a short piece from a Massachusetts Team about Girls Lacrosse.
but some players use smaller gloves for increased grip and minor protection from incidental contact.
3.The Difference Between Boy's & Girl's Lacrosse Sticks
| By Kristin Maricich
Photo Caption Lacrosse sticks are different for each gender and for different positions on the field.Photo Credit Thomas Northcut/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Although the sport of lacrosse
shares the same name for both
boys and girls, the sticks used by each
gender, as well as the game, differ.
The difference in physical contact
between boys and girls directly
affects the type, length and
pocket depth of sticks used in game play.
Evolution of the Lacrosse Stick
According to U.S. Lacrosse, “the oldest surviving sticks date from the first quarter of the 19th century,”
and the sticks from northeastern Native American tribes are considered to be the predecessors
of modern lacrosse sticks. The 3-foot-long Native American stick was “characterized by its shaft
ending in a sort of crook and a large, flat triangular surface of webbing extending as much as two-thirds
the length of the stick.” Around the mid-1930s, men's lacrosse began evolving into a game with more physical
contact, requiring protective gear and sticks designed to maintain ball possession during such physical
contact. At the same time, women's lacrosse remained similar to its origins, with the addition of minimal
protective gear and new stick technology in the modern game.
Stick Components
Every lacrosse stick is composed of the same basic components: a shaft, head and pocket.
Shafts are typically composed of lightweight composite metal and are where players grip their sticks.
The plastic head, which has sidewalls, is attached to the end of the shaft and is strung to create the pocket.
The head and pocket are where the ball is caught and carried. Lacrosse sticks can be purchased as a complete
stick or customized.
Types of Sticks
Various types of sticks are allowed for use in lacrosse, depending on age and gender.
In boys lacrosse, there are two types of sticks, the short crosse, and the long crosse.
Girls lacrosse players exclusively use a regular stick, similar to a boy's short crosse. Goalkeepers in both
boys and girls lacrosse use goalie sticks with a much wider head to help block shots on goal.
As boys and girls become more advanced players, more specialized sticks are available with
various stringing techniques, different head shapes, offset heads and varying sidewall heights.
Stick Length
The length of a player's stick can vary, depending on specific regulations, age and gender.
In boy's lacrosse, attack and midfielders use the short crosse, and defenders use a long crosse.
Overall, a short crosse can range from 37 to 42 inches long, and the long crosse ranges from 37 to 72 inches
long, depending on age division, according to U.S. Lacrosse.
The length of a girls lacrosse stick can be between 35-½ and 43-¼ inches.
Goalkeeper sticks are regulated from 35-½ to 48 inches in overall length.
Pocket Materials and Depth
The pockets of boys sticks are made from durable, interwoven synthetic mesh and hockey laces,
and are considered legal if the top of a lacrosse ball is above the bottom edge of the sidewall when
placed in the head, according to U.S. Lacrosse. Girls pockets consist of leather or synthetic thongs,
cross-lacing and shooting strings, and the lowest age levels are also permitted to use mesh.
Regulation pocket depth for girls, according to US Lacrosse is when “the top of the ball remains
above the top of the sidewall after pressure has been applied to a ball dropped into the pocket of a
horizontally held crosse.” Younger age levels of girls may also use a modified pocket where “only
half the ball may fall below the bottom of the sidewall.”
